Guilty in Tirupati laddu adulteration will face full weight of law: Lokesh

Amaravati, Nov 10 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Minister for Human Resources Development and Information Technology Nara Lokesh said on Monday that the guilty in the alleged adulteration of ghee in Tirupati laddus will face the full weight of the law.

He claimed that the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the alleged adulteration, has exposed the truth.

“The Supreme Court-appointed SIT has exposed the truth. The guilty will face the full weight of the law,” Lokesh posted on X.

“This isn’t adulteration - it is a deliberate assault on the faith of Hindus, a desecration of our belief, and a crime against the soul of Bharat. Those who played with the sacred must pay the price,” said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) general secretary.

Lokesh was reacting to reports that CBI-led SIT arrested one Ajay Kumar Sugandh, who supplied various chemicals to Bhole Baba Organic Dairy, contracted by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) to supply ghee to be used in the preparation of laddu prasadam.

The chemicals supplied to the dairy include monodiglycerides and acetic acid ester. The SIT made the revelations in the report submitted to the Nellore ACB court while seeking remand of Ajay Kumar, who is the 16th accused in the case.

The investigation by SIT revealed that Bhole Baba Organic Dairy of Uttarakhand never procured a single drop of milk or butter from anywhere, yet managed to supply 68 lakh kgs of ghee to TTD between 2019 and 2024 when the YSR Congress Party was in power.

The promoters of Bhole Baba Dairy established a full-fledged fake desi ghee manufacturing unit and supplied 68 lakh kg spurious ghee worth Rs 250 crore to TTD, which manages the affairs of the richest Hindu temple.

The SIT last month arrested K Chinna Appanna, a close aide of YSR Congress party’s Rajya Sabha member and former TTD chairman Y V Subba Reddy.

Appanna, who served as Subba Reddy’s personal assistant from 2014 to 2024, allegedly played a key role in awarding contracts to ineligible dairies.

The alleged laddu scam came to light after the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition came to power in June 2024. In September 2025, the state government constituted an SIT headed by Inspector General Sarvashreshta Tripathi to probe the case.

However, on the petitions challenging the constitution of the SIT by the state government, the High Court in October 2024 ordered the creation of a new, independent five-member SIT, replacing the state-appointed SIT.

The SC-appointed SIT consists of two CBI officers, two senior police officers from Andhra Pradesh, and one official from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

--IANS

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